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1 Peerless Trout First Nation Winter 2016 Newsletter PTFN | Elecon Results In October of 2016 the Peerless Trout First Naon held an elecon, according to the PTFN Custom Elecon Regulaon, for two councillor posions. Gilbert Okemow ran for his second term as councillor and was successful in being re- elected. Congratulaons Gilbert! The second council member to be elected in the October 2016 elecon was Judy Sin- clair. Judy was born and raised in the community of Trout Lake and is a proud mother of four grown children. Judy has been interested in being a member of council for several years. She was approached by Elders and community members to run in the October elecon. Her term will be a four-year period. Her main priority as a council member will be focused on gaining more knowledge on educaon and training programs for the youth in the community. She feels the development of the youth is the future of the community. Judy says she is anxious to learn more about her role as a councillor and the governance structures that are currently in place. She is a strong supporter of the Elders in her community and would like to see more involvement from the community Elders in decision making processes. Congratulaons to Judy in her new role. We would also like to thank Norman Gladue for his four years of service as a val- ued member of council for PTFN. We wish Norman the bets of luck in his next endeavours. this issue Elecon Results P.1 Housing Updates P.2 Cemetery & Wolf Bounty P.4 Brushing & PS Educaon P.4 Coaching Clinic P.6 High School Upgrading P.6 Recreaon P.7 Treaty Days P.8 PTMHA & Admin Building P.10 PTFN Staff Service Awards p.12 Band Manager Update P.14 Health Centre P.15 Christmas Greeng C&C P.14 Peerless Trout First Naon Winter 2016 | Newsleer Treaty Day Celebrations –PTFN 2016

Transcript of 1 Peerless Trout First Nation Winter 2016 …3 Peerless Trout First Nation Winter 2016 Newsletter...

Page 1: 1 Peerless Trout First Nation Winter 2016 …3 Peerless Trout First Nation Winter 2016 Newsletter What first-time IT managers really need to know. here in the community as housing

1 Peerless Trout First Nation Winter 2016 Newsletter

PTFN | Election Results In October of 2016 the Peerless Trout First Nation held an election, according to the PTFN Custom Election Regulation,

for two councillor positions. Gilbert Okemow ran for his second term as councillor and was successful in being re-

elected. Congratulations Gilbert! The second council member to be elected in the October 2016 election was Judy Sin-

clair. Judy was born and raised in the community of Trout Lake and is a proud mother of four grown children. Judy has

been interested in being a member of council for several years. She was approached by Elders and community members

to run in the October election. Her term will be a four-year period. Her main priority

as a council member will be focused on gaining more knowledge on education and

training programs for the youth in the community. She feels the development of

the youth is the future of the community. Judy says she is anxious to learn more

about her role as a councillor and the governance structures that are currently in

place. She is a strong supporter of the Elders in her community and would like to

see more involvement from the community Elders in decision making processes.

Congratulations to Judy in her new role.

We would also like to thank Norman Gladue for his four years of service as a val-

ued member of council for PTFN. We wish Norman the bets of luck in his next

endeavours.

this issue

Election Results P.1 Housing Updates P.2

Cemetery & Wolf Bounty P.4 Brushing & PS Education P.4

Coaching Clinic P.6 High School Upgrading P.6

Recreation P.7 Treaty Days P.8

PTMHA & Admin Building P.10 PTFN Staff Service Awards p.12

Band Manager Update P.14 Health Centre P.15

Christmas Greeting C&C P.14

Peerless Trout First Nation Winter 2016 | Newsletter

Treaty Day Celebrations –PTFN 2016

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Housing Updates

oped a housing team to build

the above noted homes.

Under the supervision and

guidance of Karl Mundt

whom is a highly respected

and successful home builder

from Peace River and Oliver

Okemow our housing team is

in the process of building the

12 homes noted above.

We are currently in discus-

sions with Alberta Labour to

have the crew’s hours ap-

plied to Carpenter Appren-

ticeship qualification.

The crew will be taught how

to build the most innovative

and energy efficient homes in

Canada which will result in

highly sought after skills be-

ing developed right here in

our own community, these

skills will mean our carpentry

crew can continue to build

homes here, eventually de-

velop their own home build-

ing business or obtain other

employment based upon

their ability to build homes.

Equally paramount to the

skills and training component

is keeping the labour dollars

On behalf of the housing depart-

ment we would like to say Merry

Christmas and Happy New Year, this

time of year for most is a time to

reflect upon many things such as

family, good health and a warm and

comfortable home. Whereas doz-

ens of renovation loans and new

affordable rental homes have been

provided since the creation of our

housing program, we realize there

is still a significant amount of work

to be done to address our commu-

nity’s housing needs.

Under the guidance and direction of

Chief, Council and the Housing Au-

thority we are pleased to announce

the following initiatives since our

last update.

One of the Chief, Council and

Housing Authority’s long term

goals was having our members

build our homes vs Premanufac-

tured homes being delivered, to

achieve that goal we have devel-

PTFN Housing is becoming a best practice and example for all First

Nations in Canada of how their housing programs can be successful

obtained $250,000 dollars from In-

dian and Northern Affairs Canada to

renovate 10 community owned

rental homes.

obtained approximately $ 1.5 million

dollars from Indian and Northern

Affairs Canada to build 3 duplexes

which will create 6 warm, comforta-

ble and affordable energy efficient

rental homes.

received Canada Mortgage and

Housing Corporation’s Residen-

tial Rehabilitation Assistance Pro-

gram allocation to assist some

homeowners with urgently need-

ed repairs to address health and

safety issues.

implemented Canada Mortgage

and Housing Corporation’s Sec-

tion #95 rental program which

will result in a subsided loan to

build 2 duplexes which will result

in an additional 4 warm, comfort-

able and affordable energy effi-

cient rental homes.

obtained $400,000 from Indian

and Northern Affairs Canada to

build 2 barrier free design Elder’s

rental homes.

obtained approximately $ 45,000

dollars from Indian and Northern

Affairs Canada for Housing Au-

thority capacity building.

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What first-time IT managers really need to know.

here in the community as housing

activity can be a significant eco-

nomic driver.

Some of the planned features of

the new duplex homes are I.C.F.

basements (Insulated Concrete

Formwork), In-floor Hydronic

heating in basement slabs, wood

stoves in basement, super insulated

exterior walls, R-60 attic insulation,

triple pane low emission argon gas

filled windows, covered front decks,

etc.

The Seniors barrier free homes will

be built completely with an en-

hanced ICF wall assembly that’s

never been built in any First Nation

community and only a handful of

other places within Canada! To put

it in perspective the home’s R40

exterior walls and R60 insulation

attic will be more then triple the

insulation of a typical trailer in the

community. The high levels of insu-

lation will result in significantly low-

er heating costs and greatly reduce

carbon emissions which are a major

contributor to climate change im-

pacts.

We are in discussions with Canada

Mortgage and Housing Corporation,

Indian and Northern Affairs Canada,

the Province and suppliers to po-

tentially have solar panels on the

Senior homes to achieve “Net Zero”

certification which means the

house produces as much energy as

it consumes, this also has never

been achieved by a First Nation.

Regardless of “Net Zero” certifica-

tion our funding partners have re-

quested we prepare a booklet high-

lighting PTFN’s housing approach

Seniors Barrier-Free Homes

Become Reality

that will be shared with oth-

er FN’s as a educational and

promotional document as to

what a First Nation can

achieve when hard work,

innovation and community

support come together.

Whereas there is a lot of

positive housing activity, un-

fortunately we still have a

few households who still

have not honoured their

renovation loan agreements

and made even a single loan

repayment , our message to

them is it’s never too late to

do the right thing and make

even a minimal regular pay-

ments before the legal pro-

cess of foreclosure is com-

menced.

In closing we’re committed

to addressing the communi-

ty’s housing needs and de-

veloping one of the coun-

try’s best First Nation hous-

ing programs, we look for-

ward to your comments and

suggestions to achieve those

goals.

Respectfully

-Housing Authority

From left to right: Oliver Okemow, Karl

Mundt, Wilfred Starr-Chalifoux, Jamie

Trindle, Paul Yellowknee, Herman Auger,

Albert Laboucan, Randy Okemow,

Jonathon Netowastanum

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Your Trust Fund Programs –Updates

Peerless Trout Wolf Bounty Control has been active since 2014. All of the

$8,400.00 that was approved from the Trust has been utilized by our

First Nation members. Since 2014, the total number of wolves killed were

42, at $200/wolf.

This proposal was successful because of our awesome and skilled hunt-

ers within our community. Since all approved funding for this proposal

has been used the wolf bounty program is now complete as of October

2016.Thank you to all the hard working hunters and all the help the

Trust Department -doing our necessary paperwork.

PTFN membership propose programs that benefit the community and vote to approve

which initiatives are funded through the PTFN trust fund.

The renovations for the two main cemeteries in the Peerless and

Trout communities are almost complete. We have renovated a total of

85 cemetery houses: 36 in the Trout cemetery and 49 in the Peerless

cemetery.

We did the best we could to identify the gravesites in each cemetery,

but some we could not identify and those are painted white. The ones that are painted blue are

for men and the other colors like pink and burgundy are for ladies. There are two in the Trout

Cemetery that have been painted white at the family’s request.

The renovation of the cemeteries will be worked on again next summer as there are many differ-

ent places that our people have been buried throughout our nation. Please be patient with us,

and if anyone can help us identify sites please let us know. You can reach the program coordina-

tor -Norma Noskiye at 780-869-3784.

There have been two monuments built in the Peerless and Trout Cemeteries. These monuments

will hold the nameplates that we had ordered. The nameplates consist of the name, the birth

year and the year of passing for each individual. Some have the name and not any dates, as we do

not have this information.

Thank you to the people that made this possible for our loved ones and a big thank you to our

Peerless Trout First Nation for this program.

- Norma Noskiye, program coordinator

Cemetery Renovation Program

Wolf Control Program

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This program has been a success

since it started, employing 18 stu-

dents from our communities

since the summer of 2014. It has

helped our youth/students finan-

cially, as well as given them valu-

able work experience. It has also

helped show pride in our com-

munities as the brushing staff

work hard to clean the Nation

during the summer months.

This program is ongoing from

support of the PTFN Trust Fund.

We take applications in June of

every year with employment

starting in July and finishing at

the end of August, a couple

weeks before the staff start

school.

The students have done brush-

ing/clearing by the Trout Church

doing a good job. They have also

worked with PTEI and did clear-

ing and brushing along Hwy 686

around power poles to the tree

line which has made our commu-

nity look beautiful.

These students work really

hard every summer to clean

and prepare our celebration

site for Treaty Days. They

mow the grass, undertake

brushing and clearing, clean

the river, pick up and haul

out garbage, set up all the

events and some even help

with taking the registrations

for these events. Then when

all is said and done with Trea-

ty Days, they are the ones

that clean up and make sure

the site is ready for the camp-

ers and fishermen.

This year we had a year-end

barbeque for the Summer

Students to thank them for

all their hard work and to

show them just how much we

appreciate the job they did

for the First Nation.

Because of this program, new

friendships are made each

summer. Again, thank you to

all the students and thank

you to all Peerless Trout First

Nation members for approv-

ing this program.

Summer Student/PSE Brushing Program

Post Secondary

Education Post-Secondary sponsorships

guidelines:

Program must be 8

months or more in dura-

tion

must include Acceptance

letter with application

must be a Career Pro-

gram

PTFN PSE program is cur-

rently sponsoring 18 students

for the 2016-17 year. We have

15 full-time students and

three part-time students in a

variety of Career Programs.

AANDC recently gave an in-

crease of $18,000 in the

hopes that we can sponsor

more students in the upcom-

ing years. Even with the ad-

ditional funds, out budget

has been expended for the

2016-17 year.

PTFN will not be accepting

any new application until

September 2017. Information

on post-secondary sponsor-

ship as well as application is

on the PTFN website.

Deadlines for application

are as follows:

September Intake

–June 15

February Intake

—November 15

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Trust Fund Programs

–Updates

Minor Hockey has been a very

important part of our Nation in

the past 4/5 years. Every year we

have so many of our Nation’s

children take part in this sport

that we desperately need individ-

uals from the communities to

step up and coach these children

and teach them the aspects of the

game.

This year, the Recreation Pro-

gram sponsored five individuals

to take part in a two-day coach

certified training course held in

Grande Prairie November 5-6.

These courses taught them how

to be great role models for the

children as well as

how to coach the

children and prepare

them for tourna-

ments and games.

These individuals took part in

courses that consist both in class-

room and on-ice training. After

the weekend was done, they all

passed their Coach Level 1 and 2.

These are the requirements need-

ed to coach children in Initiation,

Novice, Atoms and Peewee. One

individual took it a step further

and went for another day to get

the Checking Skills certificate

which is needed to coach Atoms

and peewees. We are proud to

say that PT Minor Hockey has

High School Program High School Trust Program is currently sponsor-

ing eleven full-time students for upgrading studies. With this program you can either work to-

wards a High School Diploma or to obtain pre requisites for a career program.

Same policy and procedures apply as Post-Secondary Sponsorship.

The Trustees will be conducting a Community Trust Vote to seek the memberships approval to

increase the High School Program budget in 2017 to help more individuals become students

and meet the demand. PTFN will not be accepting any new applications until September 2017

as the budget capacity for this program is at its max.

This is an ongoing program. Deadline for applications is as follows:

September Intake - June 15 February Intake - November 15

certified coaches for our

children and youth. We

would like to thank Corrine

Alook, Duane Cardinal,

John Jim Auger, Clifford

Auge and Brad Laboucan in

taking the time to go and

get trained for our young

people. We greatly appreci-

ate it. We hope that we can

do this again next year and

get more people trained

and certified because our

numbers keep growing

Coaching Clinic

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Recreation Program

This year the Recreation Program has sponsored various teams to enter a number of tournaments. We

have had local volleyball, ball hockey, baseball and ice hockey teams participate in tournaments all

over Alberta. It is great to see the local members showcasing their talents and abilities while positively

representing PTFN at sporting events.

During the summer the Recreation Program, along with MD of Opportunity #17 Outreach, hosted a

baseball league. Five teams took part in this league and the season lasted over two months ending with

a final tournament. It was a great turnout.

The Recreation Program also helped the local youth take part in a baseball and ball hockey league in

the Kee Tas Kee Now Tribal Council area. The youth played in Loon River First Nation and in White-

fish First Nation. Our community also hosted a couple of the games in both Peerless and Trout areas.

The league finished with a year-end tournament in Red Earth Creek and our teams placed very well. It

is great to see the young people participate in various sports in our communities.

Some guidelines to follow when requesting sponsorship from the Recreation Program:

Please submit a letter requesting sponsorship to the Recreation Program Director: Elizabeth Cardinal;

Include a roster for the activity or tournament- must be PTFN members and founding members;

Include poster or registration details with all information for the tournament or activity, dates, place

and entry fee amount; and

Have all of the following submitted to the Trust Department office no later than one week before tour-

nament to ensure sponsorship.

Thank you!

-Elizabeth Cardinal, program coordinator

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Treaty Days 2016

Treaty days 2016 took place on August 8-11 and it was a great

success. Most of the events took place at the Narrows Camp

Ground, along with the parade and closing events at Peerless

Lake hall. This year, we had one of the largest turnouts ever

for our Treaty Day activities. People came out to participate in

the various events that were planned and we also had numer-

ous people camping.

Events included the parade, community meal, PT Idol, Bingo,

Native Pageant, and many other great activities. A special

thanks to the MD of Opportunity Outreach program for help-

ing out and bringing in the bouncy castle for the children to

enjoy. We would also like to thank the PTFN staff and the

Summer Students for all their work to make this event possi-

ble. We sincerely hope everyone enjoyed these events and we

would like to thank everyone who came out and made our

Peerless Trout First Nation Treaty days successful. Finally,

we’d like to note that to continue to improve the Treaty Day

event PTFN will be establishing a committee to help plan and

organize the event in 2017, so if you have ideas or an interest

in being involved please let the PTFN Trust staff know.

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Treaty Days 2016

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The PTMHA has officially started their 2016/2017 season in

October of 2016. The season will run until the end of February

2017. The program remains a success with a total of total of 7

teams made up of 92 players registered from Shavers division

to Bantam.

This year the community has added an extra PeeWee team for

the boys due to a high enrollment. The teams have been allo-

cated 1.5 hours of ice time per weeks for practice.

The players have added conditioning time this season as dry-

land training has also been added to their schedule. Good

Luck to all the players and the Coaches this season.

Have fun and play safe!

Construction has started on the new Administration Building, which is located in Peerless Lake

just south of the Health Center. Construction is scheduled to be completed in May 2017 and the

building is expected to be fully functional by June. The new Administration Building will accom-

modate all of the First Nation’s employees who are

currently located in a number of buildings spread

over both communities. Having all staff in the same

office will increase the First Nation’s administrative

efficiency and will improve communications among

the employees.

PTFN Administration Building

Peerless Trout

Minor Hockey Association 2016-17

Teams Ages # of players

Shavers 5—6 10

Novice 7—8 12

Atom 9—10 17

PeeWee (1) 11—12 12

PeeWee (2) 11—12 10

PeeWee Girls 11—12 10

Girls/Women 13+ 17

Bantam 13—14 4 (no tteam)

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PeeWee Division

Atom Division

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PTFN | Staff Service Awards

The PTFN Council made the decision this year to honor and celebrate their staff by recognizing

outstanding achievements, especially given the national recognition that PTFN has received for

having an excellent Housing and Emergency Response programs. Council also wanted to

acknowledge employees who have shown their dedication by serving the community for

extended periods by introducing long term service awards.

Here is a list of the award recipients in 2016:

Recognition of Service - Health Department This award was received by all the PTFN Health Department staff for their dedication and excellent

service to the community.

5 Year Service Award

This award celebrates the long term employees who have dedicated the last 5 years of their profes-

sional life to PTFN. The award recipients this year are:

Linda Noskiye, Lila Oar, Wilma Sinclair, Chief James Alook,

& Peerless Lake Councillor William Houle

Outstanding Achievement Award - Housing Program & Authority

The achievements of the PTFN Housing Program has been recognized as National Success Story

by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada and the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corpora-

tion. The PTFN Housing Program is one of the only self-sustaining housing programs on-reserve

in Canada that provides a variety of programs for the members that blend of investment from

PTFN and contributions from members to provide good Housing.

The award recipients were Trevor Laboucan, Chris Maracle, Shannon Houle, Oliver Okemow, Ja-

son Wigton and the Housing Authority Members - Leanna Cardinal, Sherry Cardinal,

Terry Okemow (Chair), Lillian Noskiye, Rodney Sinclair, & Nora Yellowknee

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Outstanding Achievement Award - Emergency Response Program The accomplishments of the PTFN Emergency Response Program over the last few years are noth-

ing short of amazing. PTFN invested in two new state of art Fire Halls and five Emergency Re-

sponse Vehicles for on and off road have been purchased to protect and serve our community.

The community voted in favour of the Emergency Response trust program to support the opera-

tions. We are very pleased to say that eleven community volunteers have stepped forward for the

training and undertaken the various roles within the program whether its management, admin-

istration, or fire rescue. PTFN's program is being described as the best First Nation program in

Alberta and possibly Canada.

The volunteers have taken the following training: Wild Land Fire Training, Vehicle Extraction, Ad-

vanced First Aid, 1001 Fire fighter Certification with ten volunteers expected to complete the certifi-

cation process early in 2017, and our Fire Chief, Jason Wigton who is already 1001 certified is work-

ing toward a 1041 Certified Fire Fighter Trainor qualification so that we can do our training in

house.

The recipients in 2016 are Beverly Noskiye as the Administrative Lead, Marcel Noskiye as the Depu-

ty Fire Chief, & Jason Wigton our PTFN Fire Chief.

Outstanding Achievement 5 Year Service

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Christmas Message from Jason Have a wonderful Christmas and all the best in the New Year!

Wow what an incredible this year has been, Peerless Trout First Nation continues to improve and im-

press!!

As you have seen throughout this newsletter all the hard work that has been done by the Nation’s

staff, it’s leadership and all the membership that put it all together. With the pleasure of being the

Peerless Trout First Nation Band Manager I am able to watch the Nation grow and see what is being

done from each program and all the hard work and dedication that is needed to have a properly oper-

ated First Nation.

I would like to take this opportunity to give you an update on some of the exciting things that have

been happening this year:

Administration

We have been super busy this year in our programs showing

continuous growth that has no signs of stopping. PTFN this

year alone has hired an additional four staff and are currently

looking to expand and hire more staff under the new Social

Assistance program that will begin this spring. We will also

be looking for more O&M support workers.

With the Nation being so new we have had our ups and downs this year, as expected with growing

pains, but I believe the ups have definitely outweighed the downs, and all the time the staff just keep

getting better and better with the knowledge they are gaining and putting towards their roles within

the Nation.

It was also an Election year and I would like to welcome Judy Sinclair as the new Trout Lake Counci-

lor and welcome back Gilbert Okemow for Peerless Lake Councilor.

I would also like to congratulate Chief James Alook for becoming Kee Tas Kee Now Tribal Council’s

Grand Chief.

Capital Infrastructure

As you have noticed there is a big brand new building under construction in Peerless Lake beside the

Health Centre, that is the Peerless Trout First Nation’s new Administration Building and for me, I

can’t wait to be able to have all the staff together under one roof. We are expecting to be moving in

mid-April 2017.

Scott Builders is the company building the office and I would also like to take this time to thank them

for being one great company to work with and their staff have even volunteered their time to help

with setting up the new playground at the head start building. We are in the final design stages of the

new schools and will post all the updates on the PTFN website. Construction for the new schools will

begin late spring 2017 and hopefully open the doors January 2019.

Emergency Services As a Nation you should be very proud of your First Responders. The time, dedication, commitment

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and responsibility they give is enormous. We have formally signed a Fire Services Agreement with the

MD#17, which means Peerless Trout First Nation will be called out for emergencies that happen within the

communities as well as in outlying areas. This year the firefighters have completed Live Fire training, Vehi-

cle Extrication training, Search and Rescue Training and continue to complete their NFPA 1002 training.

Our team along with the Loon River Fire Department are working on a joint effort to become a member of

Search & Rescue Alberta, which no First Nations in Alberta belong to, another great accomplishment by

your Fire Fighters.

Again thank you to the communities for making this such a great Nation to work with, and thank you to all

my staff, without all the support and dedication they put in -none of this would be possible. Also, thank you

to Chief & Council for giving me the opportunity to help make Peerless Trout First Nation grow.

-Jason Wigton, Band Manager

Peerless Trout Health Centre The Peerless Trout Health Centre continues to deliver programs and services in partnership with Alberta Health Services and

Kee Tas Kee Now Tribal Council. The Nurse Practioner services continue - Michael joined us two months ago and we hope to

continue with both Michael and Anthony providing services as we are seeing need for accessing their services. Nurse Val has

retired but we welcome Colleen Ogston to the community who has a background in primary care. Colleen will continue to do

immunizations for the community and we are hoping to expand the scope of services to do Well Baby services.

The Health Centre continues to send out our monthly calendar. The information includes health programs and the calendar

of service providers coming into the community. The calendar will also be posted on the Peerless Trout website and our new

Facebook page. The monthly newsletters will begin again starting early December.

Peerless Trout was approached to begin a Cancer Screening and Prevention program. Our new Health Promoter, Amy Yellow-

knee, will be the lady that will lead this project. The project coordinator will work as a liaison within the community to devel-

op, implement, and evaluate a comprehensive community plan with health care staff to assess the need for improved cancer

prevention and screening.

The Community Garden gave us some potatoes, carrots, lettuce, turnips and a few small beets. It was not as successful as we

had hoped, however next spring we will get more black dirt and provide a larger area. First year gardens are not usually very

good as we experienced, but after each year the garden is planted, we will see more abundance from the vegetables we plant.

We would like to thank all those that participated and we hope to see more next year as we do more work and plant again in

the spring.

Our Good Food Box program is quite successful and we continue to see more community members participating in the pro-

gram. Each month, the health centre does a call out for the boxes. You provide $25.00 and the health centre matches your

$25.00, so you receive $50.00 of healthy foods. Some items we include are: fruits, vegetables, whole grain breads, milk and

flour but each month we try to change the variety of foods. If you are interested in the Good Food Box program, please call

the health centre to find out the registration deadline each month.

The Community Wellness classes will continue and we will cover topics such as: depression, trauma, stress, grief and loss. We

look forward to delivering a wide scope of topics but also want to let the community know that we are here to offer counsel-

ling services. You might have seen our psychologist, Rose Ann at some of the Treaty day events. She was very helpful and

loved volunteering for the community. Thank you Rose Ann.

We want the community to know that they can come and see us anytime to provide feedback, get assistance in accessing ser-vices or complaints. We also are here to assist Elders in completing forms whether it is for AISH, Alberta Senior’s Benefit or grants. We are here to provide quality health services and we want to know if we are doing a good job but we also need to know what can be improved and need you to share your thoughts with us.

Respectfully, The Health Team

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16 Peerless Trout First Nation Winter 2016 Newsletter

It has been another busy year for our First Nation and the Council with on-

going progress within our Band’s Administration and also with the econom-

ic development side of our Nation, the PTFN Development Corporation.

The Council and all the staff have worked hard to achieve results to contin-

ue building our community while working toward being one of Alberta’s most progressive and healthy Abo-

riginal Nations. Some of the changes are very visible with the various projects: water & sewer lines, the Ad-

ministration Building, PTFN Camp, logging, and the 12 new housing projects among other things. While

other initiatives have occurred that are not visible like the extensive work on the new schools that will begin

construction next year, the transfer of the Aboriginal Skills & Employment Training Strategy (ASESTS) pro-

gram, PTFN negotiating taking on the delivery of the Social Development Programs, and the negotiation to

extend Alberta Health’s agreement to continue to offer an enhanced suite of programs at our Health Cen-

tre.

As 2016 comes to a close we would like to thank all of our staff and partners

for their hard work and dedication to making PTFN better. There will al-

ways be changes and challenges but we have a strong team who contin-

ue to be successful in addressing issues as they arise. Council would also like

to welcome Mrs. Judy Sinclair as the new Council representative from Trout

Lake and thank Mr. Norman Gladue for his service in that role over the last 4 years.

Finally the Chief and Council would like to wish everyone a

very merry Christmas and all the very best in 2017. Enjoy

the holiday season, please take good care of yourselves

and one another. We give thanks to God and ask for his

continued blessing.

-Peerless Trout First Nation Chief & Council

Wishing you the best this holiday season; may it be full of love, laughter and joy.

Christmas Message from Your Chief & Council

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